72 "RUBBER 



For days we watch the clearing being made. First 

 the undergrowth is cut, then the trees are felled. 

 When these preparations are complete, a light is put 

 to the great mass of unwanted vegetation. A big 

 bonfire is soon raging, and when this has burnt itself 

 out, the jungle tract has given place to a clearing that 

 is strewn with charred stumps and a wreckage of 

 trunks. When the clearing has had time to cool, a 

 central road is made, and the land is divided into blocks 

 by side-paths. 



Little Heveas are now brought from an open-air 

 nursery and planted in rows, between the stump and 

 trunk ghosts of the dead jungle. These little Heveas 

 have been grown from seed on a very much smaller 

 piece of ground than that over which they are now 

 distributed. They do not want very much room until 

 they are about a year old, and by the method of putting 

 treelings, instead of seeds, in a clearing, the plantation 

 is brought to bearing-stage in about four years instead 

 of five. 



There is a great difference of opinion as to what 

 distance apart the young plants should be put in the 

 ground when they are transferred to their permanent 

 home in the clearing. Some planters put in three or 

 four hundred to the acre, and obtain quite good 

 results ; others maintain that the trees are overcrowded, 

 and cannot possibly grow to their full size, if more than 

 fifty occupy one acre of land. Generally speaking, 

 from one hundred to two hundred trees are planted per 

 acre at the present time. 



Jungle clearing is always done in the way we have 

 seen up to the bonfire stage of the proceedings. But 

 in some cases, further preparations are made before 



